Re-forming Britain considers the nature and practice of architectural modernism in inter-war Britain in a new light. Bringing hitherto little considered protagonists and projects to the fore, it argues that rather than being an imported idiom, the new architecture in Britain formed part of an ongoing attempt to make a modern nation. Spanning the period 1925-42, the book focuses on the key sites from and through which architectural modernism emerged in the UK. Part one considers the main arena in which a will to modernize Britain developed in the 1920s. In parts two and three the author documents, contextualizes and explains how this modernizing will was given modernist form, discussing the work of architects such as Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry, and Connell and Ward, and their allied ventures with likeminded reformers in other fields. These collaborations produced ‘narratives of modernity’: buildings, projects, exhibitions and books, through which, the book argues, modernist reformers were able to persuade politicians, and those with influence upon them, that modernism was the means to re-form the nation. Re-forming Britain offers the first in-depth analysis of well-known modernist schemes such as Kensal House and the Pioneer Health Centre but also brings previously little studied or unknown activities to light. This important work invites a new understanding of the nature of architectural modernism in inter-war Britain and the ways in which it ultimately gave form to post-war Britain.

A study of how architects from the late 1920s onwards sought to establish modernism as the dominant ideology in British architecture and to convert the nation to their ideology.

An important re-evaluation of radicalism, loyalism and republicanism in British political thought during the French Revolution.

In recent years the UK's macroeconomic policy framework has undergone a period of radical reform so as to deliver the economic stability necessary to achieve high levels of growth and employment. This book provides a comprehensive account of these reforms, which constitute a new and innovative approach to policy making. Radical changes to the monetary policy framework, the fiscal policy framework, the regime for public spending and financial regulation are presented. Together they represent a coherent strategy to deliver economic stability and benefits to the wider economy. As well as providing an unprecedented insight into UK Government economic policy, the book takes the reader through the intellectual foundations of policy reform and the translation of these to applied policy making. Reforming Britain's Economic and Financial Policy contains a foreword by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

"Combining visual analysis, social history and masculinity studies, Bodybuilding effects a vivid image of this critical period in Britain's cultural history and establishes on ambitious new framework for the study of late eighteenth-century art and gender."--BOOK JACKET.

This first volume of the Official History of the UK Civil Service covers its evolution from the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1854 to the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government in 1981. Despite current concerns with good governance and policy delivery, little serious attention has been paid to the institution vital to both: the Civil Service. This Official History is designed to remedy this by placing present problems in historical context and by providing a helpful structure in which others, and particularly former officials, may contribute to the debate. Starting with the seminal 1854 Northcote-Trevelyan Report, it covers the ‘lost opportunity’ of the 1940s when the Service failed to adapt the needs of ‘big government’ as advocated by Beveridge and Keynes. It then examines, in greater detail, the belated attempts at modernisation in the 1960s, the Service’s vilification in the 1970s and the final destruction of the ‘old order’ during the first years of Mrs Thatcher’s government. Particular light is shed on the origins of such current concerns as the role of special advisers the need for a Prime Minister’s Department the evolution of Parliamentary Select Committees to resolve the potential tension between bureaucracy and Parliamentary democracy. This Official History is based on extensive research into both recently released and unreleased papers as well as interviews with leading participants. It has important lessons to offer all those, both inside and outside the UK, seeking to improve the quality of democratic government. This book will be of great interest to all students of British history, British government and politics, and of public administration in general.

Distinguished historian Hall presents a revelatory account of New England's Puritans that shows them to have been the most daring and successful reformers of the Anglo-colonial world.